


time to let go, time to say goodbye

by secretfeanorian



Series: the worst things in life come free to us [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, featuring 'Maglor is probably an avenger', remains of Himring, secret passageways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-10
Updated: 2014-05-10
Packaged: 2018-01-24 05:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1592540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretfeanorian/pseuds/secretfeanorian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a ghost from the past. And it's just one more reminder that the past is something he must let go of. It's time to say goodbye...</p><p>I don't need you to tell me how unrealistic this is. I know. I don't care.</p><p>Also Maglor burning stuff. Because that was necessary...for some reason...</p>
            </blockquote>





	time to let go, time to say goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Maglor burns stuff. That’s not really warning-worthy…

_Out of suffering have emerged the strongest of souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars.  
_

* * *

They’re out in a forest in the middle of nowhere when he first gets the feeling that he knows this place. Something about the rocks is familiar, but he’s not sure what, so he keeps moving and ignores the nagging feeling somewhere in his chest that says he knows this place.  
  
He walks for another mile and then Clint trips over a hole in the ground that he hadn’t seen first. He picks himself up and keeps walking, insulting Tony right back when the ‘iron’-clad man laughs at him.  
  
But Maglor stops and looks silently down at it for a few minutes; confused. Then Bucky touches his shoulder, snapping him out of his daze. He turns to look at Bucky, his brow furrowed in bewilderment.  
  
“Maglor?” Bucky asks, and Maglor bolts up the hill; away from where the rest of the group is. “Maglor!” he calls, but Maglor isn’t listening. He knows this place, he does! It’s blurry, but he’s sure he knows this place. He reaches the top of the hill and stops there, looking out over the tree tops.  
  
“Maglor?” Bucky comes up behind him.  
  
“I know this place,” Maglor insists and Bucky just nods. Tony flies to land beside him and he’s about to say something, no doubt something slightly rude, but Bucky stops him. Maglor’s eye catches a stone sticking up from the trees and something about it looks man-made.  
  
He’s running down the hill toward it before he has a chance to think. Once there, he circles it once and then pushes back some vegetation to reveal a faded carving in the stone to Bucky and Tony. It’s simple enough, a star with eight points, but something about it is familiar. He brushes the carving and dusts away enough caked dirt to reveal strange, familiar characters that he knows read ‘fëanorian’. There’s writing that has been cut off before that, but he knows what it reads.  
  
“Himring,” he whispers and touches the space before ‘fëanorian’ where the letters have been rubbed off. “Maedhros,” he says loud and clear and Bucky looks over at him, a silent question on his face.  
  
Maglor doesn’t answer the question that hadn’t exactly been asked right away. He bends down and brushes aside the grass at the base. He finds the signet of Fingon right where it should be. Maedhros’ is missing, but Fingon’s is enough to confirm that the stone is indeed from Himring.  
  
He stands up and looks around. There’s no sign of any more ruins near here and Maglor turns back to look at Tony and Bucky. He’s not sure what to say, but before he can’t open his mouth, Tony lifts a finger and points northeast. “I saw more ruins in that direction,” he says and Maglor nods before beginning to carefully pick his way through the undergrowth northeast.  
  
He thinks he hears Steve come up the hill and ask Bucky what’s going on, but he doesn’t pay attention. He comes to the top of another hill and stops once he’s looked down.  
  
Bucky comes up behind him and whistles softly. “Would you look at that,” he says and Maglor sees Steve nod in agreement out of the corner of his eye. There’s not much left of the chamber, but what is left is impressive.  
  
Maglor carefully makes his way down the hillside and only stops when he reaches the center of the remaining floor. He bends down and brushes aside dirt and plants to reveal a faded painting of his father’s signet.  
  
There is a hole in the center of the star and he brushes his fingers over it before reaching in and pulling. The dais groans, but it releases and he pushes aside the stone covering to reveal the entrance to a hidden passageway.  
  
“That’s not ominous at all,” he hears Tony say sarcastically and if they had been anywhere else, he would’ve agreed with him. But they aren’t and so Maglor swings his legs over the opening and feels around until he finds the stairs in the side of the tunnel.  
  
“Are you start that’s a good-” Steve starts, but he doesn’t have time to finish before Maglor starts heading down.  
  
“Of course that’s what he does,” he hears Tony say and his only response is ‘don’t follow me.’ Bucky mutters something after Maglor says that, but he doesn’t quite catch it.  
  
Maglor climbs downward until he feels a door up against his leg. He pulls out a flashlight and holds it between his teeth as he works the mechanism to get it to release. When the door finally groans open, he cautiously slides his body through the doorway and tumbles into the dark room.  
  
There’s a musty smell hanging in the air and Maglor is left coughing for a few minutes until the dust settles. When it does, he shines the flashlight around the room. Most of the books and tapestries were probably at some point burned, but he notices a few that appear to still be mostly intact.   
  
There’s a thump behind him and he spins around, dropping the flashlight and whipping out a sword. It’s Bucky and Maglor relaxes and re-sheaths his sword. “I said not to follow me,” he says as he bends down to retrieve his flashlight. Bucky shrugs, eyes narrowing in the suddenly bright light. Maglor smiles slightly, and turns the flashlight to once again light up the bookshelves. A glint of metal on the floor catches his eye and he walks over to the first bookshelf and bends down to brush away more dust.  
  
There’s a necklace lying on the ground and when Maglor holds it up to the light, he nearly drops it because he remembers this necklace. He falls from squatting on his heels to his knees and he nearly drops the necklace before he tightens his grip around it almost painfully tight as the sharp ends dig into his hand.  
  
Bucky’s standing behind him with a hand on his shoulder. “How is this here?” Maglor whispers, “How?” Bucky has no answer for him, but Maglor wasn’t expecting one. He carefully pockets the necklace and picks up the flashlight from where he’d set it down. He stands up and brushes his thumb over the books in front of him. He delicately pulls one from the shelf and pushes it tight against his chest, as gently as possible.  
  
He looks at the rest for a moment, then moves for the exit. He gestures for Bucky to exit first and once the man is climbing back up the steps, Maglor roots through his pockets for the lighter he had been hoarding. “Goodbye,” he whispers, almost sadly, and hesitates only a minute before bending down and lighting the rug on fire.  
  
The flames spring up and begin to consume the ancient wood greedily, but Maglor doesn’t stay to watch. By the time the fire has reached the bookshelves, he’s out the door and as the flames begin to crawl up the remaining wall hangings, he closed and re-latched the door and is climbing up out of the hole.  
  
He pulls himself out and rolls the cover back over the hole. He doesn’t look at any of the gathered group, he just looks down at the book in his arms.  
  
“Maglor!” he hears Tony half-shout, and he looks up. “Any chance of you explaining what just happened?” he asks when he sees he has Maglor’s attention.  
  
Maglor shakes his head. “Feel free to go have a look yourselves,” he says and doesn’t say anything more until Tony is beginning to remove the cover. Then he says, “I wouldn’t recommend it though. There’s probably a lot of smoke in there by now.”  
  
Tony jerks his head up to look at him (and from the corner of his eye, he sees Bucky turn to watch him). “You _burned_ it?” Tony says in a slightly pitched voice and Maglor smiles, but there’s no humor in it.  
  
“Guess it runs in the family,” he says, not offering any suggestions as to what he means by that. He looks around at the ruin for a moment and holds the songbook a little closer to his chest. “Goodbye Maitimo,” he whispers and the weight in his chest lessens a little bit.


End file.
